The sight of crop fields brightly adorned with blooming weeds in April and May is becoming an increasingly common occurrence in Illinois. While this is not a new observation for no-till fields, particularly in Southern Illinois, winter annual weeds are becoming increasingly common due to a trend toward reduced tillage as well as unpredictable fall and spring weather patterns that may delay planned tillage operations or herbicide...
All Posts from October 2020
|
October 18, 2020 |
|
October 15, 2020 Fall harvest is a busy time for farmers. You see a lot of combines and other equipment working in the fields, sometimes around the clock, to get crops out before any bad weather arrives. Our fifth-generation farm is no different, although I am just as likely to be caring for our dairy cow herd as I am combining corn and soybeans or doing weed research for Purdue University. I put in a lot of long hours all year wearing so many hats.... |
|
October 12, 2020 With harvest underway for most producers in the state, the next big challenge is to properly manage logistics to successfully deliver high quality grain to the point of sale. Depending where a producer is located it may or may not make sense to sell corn or soybeans right out of the field for numerous reasons (basis or future price, deferred income in next tax year, etc.). Harvest crop moisture can add another layer of complication... |
|
October 08, 2020 Our family grows soybeans in Washington County, Illinois, which is the top winter wheat producing county in the state. We take advantage of the southern Illinois geography raising both full-season seed soybeans and double-crop seed soybeans behind wheat. And while we haven’t started harvesting either soybean crop yet, we already are making preparations to address challenges we could face in 2021. The decisions we make will all come... |
|
October 05, 2020 Todd Steinacher sat down with Mark Schleusener, an Illinois state statistician with the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), to learn more about the history and procedures used to determine weekly crop progress, acreage, yield, and production numbers. Question: What is the history of the USDA and the crop report? |
|
October 02, 2020 Q & A with Christy Ford, Grain Originator with CHS Carrollton
I’m sure we can all agree that we will be glad when the challenges of 2020 are behind us. However, we may all come out stronger and more appreciative of how life used to be and how simple it was to do business. With soybean harvest underway in some parts of the state, I felt it was important to reach out to a good friend and my personal... |